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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



reached that the spraying- of fruit-trees 

 while in bloom, in some cases not only did 

 no good, but was a positive injury in others, 

 becavise the poisonous fluids destroy or in- 

 jure the delicate parts of some flowers as 

 well as the pollen of others. There was no 

 question, he thoug-ht, but that the spraying- 

 liquids do kill bees in large numbers when 

 these mixtures are administered at the 

 wrong time ; that so many were killed that 

 the bee-keepers in several States secured 

 the passage of laws forbidding spra3dng 

 while in bloom. Since then a large number 

 of experiments, at the request of the fruit- 

 men, have been conducted, each showing 

 that, aside from the damage done to the 

 bee-keeper, the former could not afford, if 

 they would consult their own interests, to 

 spray at such times, even if the little bee 

 were taken out of the account. 



We next listened to Prof. M. B. Waite, 

 Assistant Chief of Vegetable Physiology 

 and Pathology of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, Wiishington, D. C. Prof. Waite 

 issued a bulletin in 1895, detailing a series 

 of experiments that showed, or seemed to 

 show, at least, that the bee pla3^s a very 

 important part in the dissemination of 

 pear-blight from tree to tree. Prof. N. B. 

 Pierce, Pathologist of the Pacific Coast 

 Laboratory, and Mr. N. W. Mother al, Hor- 

 ticultural Commissioner, of Hanford, Cal., 

 together with Prof. Waite, referred to, 

 it will be remembered, have placed the 

 responsibility for the spread of the blight, 

 or at least a part of it, in California, on 

 the bees. 



Prof. Waite is a gentleman of pleasing 

 appearance, and, so far as one could see, 

 as we listened to his interesting address, 

 he is one who endeavors to be perfectlj^ 

 fair, and consistent with truth. While he 

 stated before this joint meeting that the 

 bees could and do spread the pear-blight, 

 he did not wish to be understood as urging 

 that they were the only means for its dis- 

 semination. He admitted that there are 

 other insects and wild bees in sufficient 

 numbers, possibly, to scatter the pear- 

 blight, so that, if all the bees that are in 

 the control of man should be removed from 

 an infected region, it might not bring any 

 improved condition. He further believed, 

 from a long series of experiments that he 

 had conducted, despite the fact that bees 

 could spread pear-blight, they were very 

 necessary to the fruit-man, and that he has 

 himself, in his own pear-orchard, kept a 

 few bees, not for the honey, nor because he 

 was directly interested in the bee-business, 

 but because he desired them for a purpose, 

 and that purpose was to fertilize the bloom 

 of his trees. Such a statement, coming 

 from a man occupying the position he does, 

 puts him in the attitude of one who recog- 

 nizes the value of the bee, a.nd who, so far 

 from condemning them, feels that they are 

 necessary to the fruit-men in spite of the 

 damage that they may do. 



The last address of the evening was one 

 from Mr. H. W. CoUingwood, editor of the 



Rural New-Yorker, on the subject of "The 

 Pomologist and the Fruit-grower." This 

 was delivered in a clear, strong voice, and 

 at numerous times his pungent and salient 

 hits brought down the house with rounds of 

 applause from both the bee and fruit men. 

 He very kindly tendered me a copy of the 

 address, and I take pleasure in presenting 

 it to our readers. It is well worth reading 

 carefully clear through. 



I am not a liee-keeper, although I help keep my 

 neighbors' bees I don't pretend to be a pomologist. 

 I'm a plain fruit grower, far eno gh along to realize 

 that, with all his proud dominion over the lower 

 forces of nature, man can not produce the finest and 

 most perfect fruits without the help of his friend the 

 bee. That, I believe, will be the conclusion of every 

 fiuit grower who will really study the question. 



The relation between the fruit-grower and the bee 

 itself are phy>ical. mental, and moral Interfere with 

 a bees' notion of duty and right, and he at once 

 administers a stineing rebuke to those faint-hearted 

 humans who permit others to interfere with their 

 homes and privileges. Perhaps some of you have 

 heard of the young man who said he called his sweet- 

 heart "honey," and in 24 hours she broke out in an 

 attack of hives. 



The mental relations appear when a thoughtful 

 man studies the wi nderful life and habits of the bee, 

 and the social order that ptevails inside the hive. 

 That man must admit that even the civilization that 

 has been inspired by hun'an wisdom falls short of 

 this in some essentials of justice and equity. The 

 moral a-p?ct appears when in the latter part of sum- 

 mer, the bees swarm to your fruils. and you \.\y to 

 follow out the principles of the Golden Rule in your 

 relations with the bee-keeper. You learn then how 

 much easier it is to be a bear than it is to fort ear. 

 One must learn to use the memory of .'■ervices ren- 

 dered as oil for the rusty machinery of pat ence 



There are two worthy citizens who upstt ihe theo- 

 ries of the scientific tren— Jack Hrost and Mr. Honey 

 Bee. Ice and honey are two crops which remove no 

 fertility from the soil. A man might cut ice en his 

 neighbor's pond for j-ears, and make a fortune by do- 

 ing so, yet all his work would cut no ice in the great 

 American game of robbing the soil. The pond will 

 not be injured in the least. In like manner my neigh- 

 bor's bets may take a ten of honey from my fruit- 

 trees, and it ma}' sell at a good price, yet my farm 

 has not lost five cents' worth of olant food, nor w uld 

 I have been a cent better off if the bees had not taktn 

 an ounce of the nectar, but had simply acted as dry 

 nurses to my baby fruits without pay or reward. Both 

 frost and liee bring unnumbert d lilessings to man, yet 

 most <'f us will spend more time growling at some 

 little injury which thev do as they pass on than we 

 will in praise and thankfulness ior all the benefits 

 thev heap upon us I have known fruit growers ard 

 pomologists who, when thty find the bee sucking 

 some cracVed and worthless old fruit, to forget th^t 

 thebi-e did more than thev in the making of thee 

 fruils. If they were in the bee's place they won 11 

 probably demand 75 p.-r cent of the fines' fruit in the 

 orchard as payment for their labor. Such folks make 

 me think of the housekeeper who found fault wi h 

 the mini-ter. The g: od man en me into the house 

 of sicVness with a message of divine hone and 1 ve 

 pnd fa'th. He cheertd the hearts of all ; and yet 

 when he "rent awaj' the housekeeper found fault wiih 

 him because he forgot to wipe his feet on the door- 

 mat, and tracked some mud upon her kitchen floor. 

 Wh'it a world this would be if we could learn to judee 

 others, fot by their little weaknesses, but by their 

 great acts of loving service ! 



If one would look for the ideal relations between 

 the f'uit-erower and the bee-keeper he wou'd find 

 them inside the modern cucumher-hou'=e. The cucum- 

 ber is "cool" wav down to the courtship < f its flowers. 

 Matrimonial agen's are required, and formerly these 

 were men who went about with soft brushes dusting 

 the pollen upon these bashful flowers. It has been 

 found that bees will do this better than the men, and 

 most cucumber houses now have their swarms of bees. 

 Inside the glass house the grower has no desire to 

 throw stones at the bee keeper, because they both 

 wear the same clothes: and the man who can not get 

 on harmoniously with himself has no business o>it of 

 jail. I sav that, we'l knowine that some of the darkest 

 life tragedies in the world's history have been caused 

 by the evil side of a man's nature obtaining mastery 



